So, Afari Gyan resigns and the NPP benefits?

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Friends, at this juncture in our national politics, the chips have fallen in place, but the defeated NPP cabal doesn’t seem to know that reality and is still up and about, raising dust for nothing.

We have heard all the ugly noise that has characterized their dissension against the Supreme Court’s ruling. Unfortunately for them, there is no magic or witchery that can overturn what has been electorally and legally (not to say constitutionally) mandated against their aspirations. Their horses ran out of their stables long ago, and all that they are doing now is just a pointless but remarkable confirmation of their dejection.

Oh, how I wish they would look into their political lives to know that when the Ghanaian electorate rejected them at Election 2008 and repeated it at 2012, they did so with a clean conscience, having examined issues conscientiously to know who would best serve their purposes as the President. They went for the late Atta Mills at Election 2008 and John Dramani Mahama at Election 2012, not William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (what a mouthful of a name?) on both occasions because Akufo-Addo is not what Mills or Mahama is.  What is difficult about this plain fact to not understand?

The majority that went for President Mahama did so because of what they saw in him; and they haven’t shifted in any way to suggest that they regretted voting for him. I recall with some measured trepidation what some people said after Election 2008 to suggest that they regretted voting for ex-President Mills, apparently because they felt let down by goings-on. Although that expression of regret belongs to history, it still has its relevance if juxtaposed with the fate of President Mahama.

I haven’t heard any voter regret rooting for him; and he is well ensconced in the groove to serve his full four-year tenure and brace up for Election 2016. The Supreme Court has sealed it all for him and we will do everything to ensure that he survives the whirligig of the NPP’s negative politics. We have it as our bounden duty to lend him or unflinching support because he is the fount of authority in Ghana. Hail him, then!!

Within this context,  I am more than appalled by the kind of dirty politics that the NPP people have been doing all this while, especially after being humiliated at Election 2012 and told the plain truth by the Supreme Court on August 29. The ruling against them reinforces John Mahama’s legitimacy which they should have come to terms with by now had they risen above the “book politics” that they have been doing all this while and making themselves unappealing in consequence.

I am tempted to wonder sometimes why ex-President Kufuor can’t bring his experiences to bear on what is happening in his party, having himself outgrown all the negative things that he encountered from within to win the 2000 elections and be re-elected in 2004 to serve for 8 years. It’s not to suggest anything other than the fact that his ability to return the Danquah-Busia political family to glory after 30 years in the political wilderness owed much to factors hinging on personal characteristics and the existing political situation in the country under ex-President Rawlings. Kufuor succeeded; not so?

Truth be told, what Kufuor had to make him win the hearts of the electorate, Akufo-Addo lacks. Indeed, when Kufuor won narrowly the first round of Election 2000, there were many factors to give him a head-start advantage over ex-President Mills. No intention to revisit that aspect of our history, but suffice it to say that Kufuor’s ability to win the second round is remarkable.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Akufo-Addo who won the first round of Election 2008 only to tumble down into something else in the run-off. His whining and vain, desperate moves to use the judiciary (with the misguidance of Atta Akyea) didn’t yield anything beneficial because Kufuor was there as the voice of reason to cut it short. Kufuor preferred truth (in terms of happenings at the polls) to mere technicalities at the court or treachery. He proved to Akufo-Addo that elections are won at the polls.

Did Akufo-Addo learn any lesson to guide him for Election 2012? Your guess is as good as mine. He didn’t and will not if he stands again at Election 2016.

At this point, then, isn’t it clear that the NPP people who are out creating confusion here and there and seeking needless global attention are the architects of their own doom? Will they even know this truth?

To cite a simple instance to support this claim (especially because of their myopic “book politics”), let me refer to the current craze among them: demanding that Dr. Afari Gyan (Chair of the EC) should resign. What do they think the resignation of Dr. Afari Gyan will offer them? Put their defeated and dejected Akufo-Addo in office? Hahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa.

Here is the exact instance of their confusion as reported in the news:

“The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has backed calls for the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to resign his position.

The NPP says the EC boss has "lost credibility" and not worthy to preside over the 2016 general elections after his testimony in court during the hearing of the dismissed President Election Petition.

The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) in a statement issued in Accra Tuesday called for the immediate resignation of Dr. Afari-Gyan.

The group claims his continuous stay in office after his admission that there were flaws in the 2012 election in court will be inimical to Ghana’s electoral process.

The call comes after the EC has requested political parties to submit proposal for reforms in the country’s electoral system.

However, speaking on Citinews, General Secretary of the party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said the call for Afari-Gyan’s resignation is long overdue.

“We of the NPP are firmly convinced that Afari-Gyan’s position is untenable; he has lost credibility and public confidence so he must go,” he stressed. (See http://politics.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201309/112964.php)

And much much more more of such inanity. But so much of this drivel. Now, a good question for this myopic Owusu Afriyie: Who appoints the Electoral Commissioner? The NPP or the President, as mandated by the Constitution? And if Afari Gyan heeds the NPP’s call to resign, how will that redound to the NPP’s political fate? To claim some useless bragging rights that he did so because they mounted pressure on him? To what end to boost the NPP’s chances for Election 2016? How infantile!!

What will the resignation of Afari Gyan offer the NPP to suggest that it will have a brighter future than what has already jolted it? Are they fighting him because he is the only person to work against their interest in elections? One Afari Gyan here, another one there. Will there now be looking for all the Afari Gyans to deal with? Fighting every windmill they construct on the political terrain? What madness!

You see, the more these inexperienced but arrogant NPP politicians open their mouths to talk about issues that they know little about, the more they give me the opportunity to poke them on the rib cage. They don’t really know how to do politics and will continue to be at the receiving end.

The problem that we may glean out of this “TAKASHI POLITICS” is that which relates to the unfettered powers granted the President by the Constitution in the appointment of public officials. Unless the NPP’s agitation is meant to change the Constitutional mandate for the President not to be the sole appointing authority of the Electoral Commissioner and others whose role is crucial to the survival of our democracy, all that is happening now is mere hogwash.

It is futile and won’t advance the NPP’s cause. At best, it comes across as the last strokes of party functionaries suffering in the throes of political defeat. The earlier to come to terms with their sorry state, the better it will be for them to know how to re-strategize and prepare for future elections.

I am more than persuaded to believe at this point that what they have done so far is counter-productive and won’t help them re-define themselves as politicians genuinely interested in grabbing political power in this 21^st century. They are already an endangered species and need better strategies to remain in contention. Can they, for once, give us a break?

I shall return…

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